Through-thickness thermal conductivity enhancement and tensile response of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites have excellent structural properties and potential multi functionality, but thermal conductivity enhancement is desired to meet the heat transfer requirement due to low thermal conductivity in the through-thickness direction. The micro-nano boron nitride (BN) fillers were incorporated into the CFRP by the acetone vehicle-solvent to prepare three phase composites with relatively high thermal conductivity. Three prediction models were presented to estimate the thermal conductivity of composites respectively based on component configurational correlation, filler penetration degree, and ease of conductive chains formation. Most predicted results for modified composites show good agreement with experiments. The effects of vehicle-solvent concentration on microsurface morphology of prepreg and thermal conductivity of composites were conducted, and the thermal modification mechanism was explored based on above-mentioned and filler distribution. The tensile responses of modified composites also show obvious difference as the variation of vehicle-solvent concentration. The degradation of mechanical property suggests that it is a couple of potential challenges between structural property and thermal functionality.